Lantern



Jan. 8 1924. 1,480,171"

E. J. MCDADE LANTERN Filed Au 24. 1922 2% v r ATTO EY Patented Jan. 8, 1924.

U TED S 1ST r al J. MGDADE, OF WARSAW, NEW YORK, AS SIGNOR TO EMBURY MANUFACTUR- ING COMPANY, OF WARSAW, NEW YORK, A CORPORATION OF NEW YO.

LANTERN.

Applioation flled August 24, 1922. Serial No. 584,111.

.To all whom/it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWARD J MGDADE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Warsaw, in the county of Wyoming and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Lanterns, of which the following is a specification.

The object of this invention is to provide an electric lantern of simple and durable construction made up in a manner that will permit an unobstructed radiation of li ht in all directions and permits the use of a series of individual standard electric cells for furnishing the electric current for the light.

Another object of this invention is to provide this lantern with a battery container formed by separate compartments in which the dry cells, making up the battery, when placed therein are automatically connected in series with each other.

Another object of this invention is to so construct this battery container that if one or more of the dry cells of the battery are exhausted, creating an electric resistance for the current from the remaining good dry cells, such cells can be separately replaced to bring the capacity and strength of the battery back to normal.

These and other objects of this invention will be fully illustrated in the drawing, described in the specification and pointed out in the claims at the end thereof.

' In the accompanying drawing:

Figure 1 is a side elevation of the lantern.

Figure 2 is a vertical cross section of the lantern, the section being taken on the line -2 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a top and bottom plan v1ew of the base and the cover of the base of the lantern respectively, the parts being in the position which theyoccupy when the base is opened by swinging the cover thereof and the globe mounted thereon to one side of the base on the hinges which connect the base and the cover together.

In the several figures of the drawing like reference numerals indicate like parts.

Electric lanterns of difierent types and makes have been in use for some time but the use of these lanterns has been more or less restricted by the dry cell battery especially designed for use in each of these makes of electric lanterns. 'Thus each lantern was comethese drawbacks in the use of an elec- A trio lantern by constructing a lantern in which standard makes of dry cells are used to make upthe battery that furnishes the electric current for the incandescent light. These cells are being sold at the present time in single units in almost any store and when one of them becomes exhausted 1t can be quickly replaced by a new one with very little expense so that the light of the lantern can be kept at a maximum efliciency at all times.

As illustrated in the figures of the drawing the lantern is constructed with a hollow cylindrical base 1 of which the top or cover 2 is hinged to the base on one side thereof by means of the hinge 3. A bead 4 is formed around the outside of the base 1 near the top thereof to form a shoulder on which the outturned edge of the flange of the cover 2 is adapted to rest and be clamped In place thereon by means of any suitable latch mechanism such as is represented by the latch finger 5. This latch finger is mounted on the inside of the base and projects thru an opening in the top of the cover 2. The offset formed on the upper end of the latch finger is forced outwardly by the sprin action of the finger so that as soon as tl ie finger has passed thru the opening in the cover it springs to one side of the opening and engages the edge thereof and in this way locks the cover to the base.

Within the base 1 is provided the battery container. This container consists of a rectangular frame 6 built up by bending a strip of fiber or other insulating .material in the desired shape and then fastening the corners thereof to the sides of the base in any suitable manner, rivets being shown in container are made of metal strips and serve as connecting members for electrically connecting the individual dry cells of the battery. or this purpose each-of these partitions has a cont-act plate 9 fastened to one end and a sprin finger 1O fastened to the other end thereo These contact plates and spring fingers of the partitions are located so as to project into adjacent compartments. This locates the contact plate of one partition in the end of one compartment while the spring finger of'the same partition will be located in the opposite end of the next compartment. The contact plates and spring fingers are also supported and fastened to the ends of each of the compartments so that when one of the dry cells 11 is placed into it the carbon electrode 12 thereof comes in contact with the contact plate 9 while the zinc electrode formed by leaving the bottom of the casing of each of the cells exposed has the spring finger pressed yieldingly against it.

In addition to the contact-plates 9 and spring fingers 10 which are fastened to the end of each of the partitions 7 and 8, an extra contact plate 13 and an extra spring finger 14 respectively is provided in the end compartments of the battery container in order to complete the electric circuit of the battery. In this way each of the dry cells 11 when placed into the compartments of the container has a spring finger yieldingly forcinoagainst the bottom of the cell which not only holds the top of the cell formed by the carbon electrode in cont-act with the contact plates provided on the opposite ends of the compartments, but also electrically connects all of the dry cells in series with each other. In the bottom of the. inside of the base is placed an insulating pad 15 made up of fiber or cardboard which also forms an insulating bottom for the battery container just described.

The cover 2 of the lantern base has a dome 16 formed thereon. This dome projects up from the centerof the top of the cover and has the electric light socket 17 provided in the upper end thereof. This socket is adapted to receive the threaded base of the electric incandescent light 18. A contact point 19 is provided in the middle of the bottom of this socket and this contact point is electrically insulated from the socket but has a downwardly projecting stem 20 soldered or otherwise suitably fastened thereto. The lower end of this 'stem passes thru the insulating cover 21. located on the inside of the cover 2 and is connected to the contact spring finger 22 mounted on the under side of this insulating cover 21.

The free end of the spring contact finger projects over to one side of the battery container and when the cover is placed on the base and held in place thereon, as above deon the Han me ian scribed, the end of this spring jifinger makes contact with the upper edge of the contact plate 13 as illustrated in Figure 2.

above the edge of the rectangular frame as shown in this figure in order to provide a good contact point for the end of the spring nger to rest on. r l

Pivoted on the under side of the cover 2 with the insulating cover 21 between it and the cover 2 is the switch member 23. This switch member is made up in the form of a lever that projects out thru an opening in the side of the cover 2 and has a handle 24 formed thereon. Adjacent to this switch member is mounted a double spring contact finger which is suitably fastened to the insulating cover 21 and electrically insulated from the cover 2 proper. This is done by using a double thickness of card or fibre board for the insulating cover 21 and fastening the spring fingers to the lower. one of the two layers so that the upper layer of the co er separates the fastening means of the spring fingers to the cover 21. from the cover 2. This holds true for both of the spring contact fingers 2-2 and 25.

The double contact finger 25 is so constructed that one end thereof projects down from the cover 21 while the other end is bent to form a yielding contact for the lever of the switch member 23. The downwardly projecting end of the finger is located directly above the upper edge of the spring contact finger 14. ofthe battery container and makes contact with it in the same manner as the spring contact finger 22 with the upper edge of the contact plate 13 as above described. When therefore the switch member 23 is moved under the ends of. the double spring contact finger 25 it makes electrical cont-act with this contact finger and completes the electric circuit of the battery with the incandescent light. lln this way the light of the lantern is controlled by the movement of the switch member 23 into or out of contact with the spring finger 25.

Surrounding the dome formed, on top of the cover 2 is a threaded circular flange 26. This flange is suitably fastened to the top of the cover by means of small lugs formed These lugs pass thru suitable elongated oles in the top of the cover and are turned back against the under side thereof so as to securely anchor the threaded flange 26 to the cover. 1

The globe 27 has ashort threaded extension 28 of redi ced diameter formed at the lower end thereof with which it is threaded into the threaded circular flange 26 to rigidly support the globe on top of the cover of the base. At the top the globe has another thread of smaller dlameter formed thereon. A cap 30 is threaded over the threaded upper end of the globe and closes The contact plate'13 is made to project slightly the to thereof. A bale 31 is mounted on this cap 30 by means of which the lantern can be handled.

It will be seen from the foregoing that the lantern made up in the manner shown and described is constructed so that the light radiating from within the globe is not obstructed in any way as the globe of the lantern is the only connecting member between the base and the bale of the lantern. It will also be apparentthat it is inexpensive to replenish the dry cells of this lantern as no special battery is needed because the dry cells used to make up the battery for the lantern are standard and can be purchased in practically allstores so that the light of the lantern can be kept at a maximum efficiency as a consequence thereof.

I claim:

1. In an electric lantern, the combination of a hollow base, a. battery container formed in said base, said battery container comprising a frame having its walls formed by a strip of insulating material, partitions made up of electrical connecting members mounted within said frame, a pair of contact members on the end of each of said artitions, one of said contact members bemg located in the end of one of the compartments formed by said partition and the other of said contact members being located in the opposite endof the other of said compartments formed by said partition, dry cells adapted to be yieldingly held in place in the compartments formed in said container. said partitions and said contact members connecting said dry cells in series with each other, an electric light bulb mounted on top of said base and connected in series with the dry cells in said base, a switch member mounted on said base and adapted to control the current from said battery of dry cells to light said electric light bulb.

2. In an electric lantern, the combination of a hollow base, a. rectangular frame having its walls formed by a strip of msulatmg material mounted within said base, electric conductors forming partitions provided in said frame to form compartments therein, contact members provided on the ends of said electric conductors, electric dry cells adapted. to be placed within said compartments and make contact with the contact members of one of said electric conductors at one end of the compartment andwith the contact member of another electric conductor at the other end of the compartment, an electric light bulb mounted on top of said base and a switch member adapted to control thecurrent from the dry cells by opening and closing the light circuit of the lantern.

3. In an electric lantern, the combination of a hollow base, a cover mounted on top of said base, a battery container formed within said base, a dome formed on top of said cover, an electric light socket formed in the top of said dome, an insulating cover mounted on the under side of said dome within said cover, va pair of spring contacts mounted on said insulating cover, a switch member mounted on said cover of said base, said switch member being located below said insulating cover, a stem extending from one of said spring contacts to said electric light socket, an electric light bulb mounted in said socket, said switch member being adapted to make contact with one of said spring contacts to complete the electric circuit from one of said spring contacts thru the said socket and electric light bulb to the other of said spring contacts, said spring contacts being adapted to make contact with the negative and positive electrode of the battery contained in said hollow base. a In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

EDWARD J. McDADE. 

